Most people visiting this website will either be buying their first dehumidifier or they will not of bought a dehumidifier for a very long time. Below is an easy guide to getting it right, if you cannot get the information you need from here then please do call us via 0861 388 878 or email us via kovdor@mweb.co.za.

How to dry clothes with a dehumidifier.

You will see below that we ask the question about a tumble dryer, this is because drying washing on a clothes horse in the house adds a lot of moisture to the air. A dehumidifier can help with the drying process by putting the dehumidifier next to the washing and letting the dry air blow onto the clothes. This helps the clothes dry faster and ensures that the water produced goes into the dehumidifier and not around the home. To dry the washing faster put the dehumidifier and the clothes horse into as small a room as possible and close the door. The reduced air volume of the room will mean that the relative humidity will fall quicker and therefore clothes will dry faster. Getting the dry air from the dehumidifier to hit the clothes will help the clothes to dry faster in a similar way to clothes drying on a washing line outside.

All of these applications are the same as far as a dehumidifier is concerned. They are all likely to drop below 15°C, the dehumidifier needs to drain the water away continuously, the dehumidifier will be left unattended for long periods of time, it needs to start working again after a power cut (auto-restart) and it needs a good humidity sensor to prevent over drying and to save energy. For use on a boat it should be light to carry on board and not have castors so it will not roll around.Click here for the solution.

Workshop

Boat

Caravan

Holiday home

Conservatory

We would buy

Conservatories get very cold at night and this is why condensation forms so easily on the glass. Very few dehumidifiers work well below 15°C which a conservatory certainly will be overnight, hence the recommendation of a desiccant dehumidifier. If you dry washing in the conservatory then the Meaco DD8L Junior’s laundry mode will be beneficial.

If you have a tumble dryer then the only moisture will be coming from the cooking, bathing and breathing and the Meaco 10L is more than big enough to cope. It is small and quiet which is very important in a flat and is easy to use.

As long as it is not a particularly large 3 bedroom home then the Meaco 10L will cope fine. Position it somewhere central like the bottom of the stairs or in the hallway and the damp air will come to it as long as the internal doors are left open.

There is no doubt that the DD8L Junior is excellent at drying washing and it has the right capacity for a 3 bedroom home. It’s quiet mode will be appreciated as will the fact that it is very light is you decide to carry it to where you dry the washing.

The Meaco 20L is a personal favourite with many here at Meaco. It oozes class collects a lot of water quietly and cheaply. If the house is large or you want the best then the Meaco 20L makes a lot of sense.

Again an air volume that the Meaco DD8L Junior is comfortable with and it’s ability to dry washing is fantastic. If you have 4 bedrooms then you probably have more people living in the house and therefore more washing. Place the dehumidifier downstairs so that it is closer to the washing machine and therefore the place that you most likely dry the washing.

The Meaco 20L is a personal favourite with many here at Meaco. It oozes class collects a lot of water quietly and cheaply. If the house is large or you want the best then the Meaco 20L makes a lot of sense.

Again an air volume that the Meaco DD8L Junior is comfortable with and it’s ability to dry washing is fantastic. If you have 5 bedrooms then you probably have more people living in the house and therefore more washing. Place the dehumidifier downstairs so that it is closer to the washing machine and therefore the place that you most likely dry the washing.

These applications all get lumped together because they all tend to be unattended and they are all likely to see temperatures below 15°C. Anything under 15°C is low temperature for a dehumidifier and there is a risk of a traditional compressor based machine icing up because the air is cooled inside the dehumidifier until the water vapour condenses. The lower the ambient temperature the lower the temperature inside the dehumidifier and the closer to freezing you get, especially when the ambient air is below 15°C. This is why most compressor dehumidifiers spend only half their time drying the air below 15°C because they will always spend 30-40 minutes out of every hour defrosting themselves.
Compressor dehumidifiers are inefficient at low temperaturesThe other factor is that compressor based machines extract less water out of the air the lower the temperature gets. Therefore a machine like the Meaco 20L that is rated at 20 litres per day at 30°C and 80%rh will extract about 3 litres per day when used in a garage at less than 10°C. For most garages this will actually be fine and certainly enough to control the relative humidity to a reasonable level. Desiccants do not mind the cold.Desiccant dehumidifiers on the other hand do not care whether the temperature is 5 or 25°C and their performance will remain the same. Therefore a desiccant dehumidifier like the Meaco DD8L which extracts 8 litres per day will actually extract twice as much in a garage as a compressor based dehumidifier rated at 16 litres per day (at 30°C and 80%rh).Draining the water and power cuts.These applications are usually unmanned and there is no-one there to keep an eye on the dehumidifier. So you need a dehumidifier that can be drained away continuously so that you do not have to worry about emptying the container (which will fill up each day) and auto-restart so that if you have a power cut the dehumidifier will start to work again in the mode that you set rather than go into stand by mode waiting for you to press a button.So what do you buy?If you do have an application where there is little or no heating only ever buy a an absorption based machine like the Meaco DD8L or the Meaco DD8L Junior.
The Meaco DD8L and DD8L Junior are desiccant dehumidifiers specially designed for just these sort of applications and perfect for anywhere where the temperature will drop below 15°C or the dehumidifier will be left for long periods of time unattended.

Meaco (U.K.) Limited are a leading manufacturer of dehumidifiers for domestic
and commercial use. Our dehumidifiers can be found in applications across
the whole of Europe and South Africa. Founded in 1991 we have a wide range
of experience of delivering dehumidifiers, building dryers and industrial dryers
to solve customer's damp, condensation and moisture problems.

You can learn more about Meaco (U.K.) Limited at our worldwide homepage - www.meaco.com.
Solenco South Africa's homepage can be found via this
link